Former Spanish King Juan Carlos faces investigation over alleged Jersey trust fund

The former Spanish King is already facing two existing investigations into his finances

Credit: AP Photo/Andrea Comas

Former Spanish King Juan Carlos is facing a fresh investigation into his finances, reportedly focusing on a trust fund in Jersey.

Spain’s attorney general, Dolores Delgado, announced the investigation based on a report by the state’s anti-money laundering intelligence unit, Sepblac.

Spanish media claim the Sepblac report focuses on an alleged hidden fortune in the Channel Islands, specifically a trust fund domiciled in Jersey of which Juan Carlos is named as the beneficiary.

The trust fund reportedly received five million euros from an older Channel Islands structure in 2005 and remains active.

Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Alejandro Luzón said on Friday that the investigation into the Sepblac report is still "embryonic", and that it was premature to determine whether the evidence points to a tax offense or the more serious crime of money laundering.

Supreme Court prosecutors in Spain are already investigating two other cases of alleged corruption by the 82-year-old Juan Carlos. One probe is focused on the circumstances of a $100m “donation” he received from Saudi Arabia in 2008, and the second concerns the alleged use of secret credit cards to spend money from an offshore account.

In August, shortly after the first Supreme Court probe was launched, Juan Carlos left Spain and flew to Abu Dhabi in what he said would be a temporary exile. His lawyer, Javier Sánchez-Junco, said the former monarch remained at the disposal of the court if he was called for questioning.

Prosecutors are expected to call for the investigation into the Saudi money to be closed as it concerns activities that took place before Juan Carlos’s 2014 abdication, meaning that he is immune from prosecution under Spain’s Constitution.

The secret credit card investigation focuses on money flowing into Spain between 2016 and 2018, opening the door to the potential for allegation of tax fraud as the funds spent could be considered undeclared income.